Former Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler lawyer Christina Kitterman was sentenced to five years in federal prison Tuesday for impersonating a Florida Bar official in a hoax that helped Scott Rothstein keep his massive investment fraud alive.

Kitterman, 39, was taken into custody immediately. She appeared calm and waved to family members and friends, who sobbed and called out "Love you" as she was led from the courtroom.

Though Kitterman did not know Rothstein was running a $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme, she knew she was committing fraud when she pretended she was a senior disciplinary official for the Florida Bar, Senior U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley ruled Tuesday.

Kitterman's family and friends told the judge she had been portrayed as a "monster" but was just a loyal friend who had been manipulated by Rothstein.

Rothstein had testified in Kitterman's February trial and it "was really chilling," the judge said. "We forget sometimes how devious, how corrupt, how far-reaching the tentacles of corruption can be."

Hurley said Tuesday that Kitterman lied to jurors when she claimed she did not identify herself as Adria Quintela, head of the Bar's Fort Lauderdale office, during a conference call.

Kitterman, who lived in Deerfield Beach and most recently practiced in Boca Raton, apologized in court Tuesday.

"I'm not here, Your Honor, to make any excuses; I accept responsibility," she said. "I made a phone call that hurt people. If I could take back that phone call, I would."

She said she had a "very complicated" relationship with Rothstein, an adjunct professor while she was a law student at Nova Southeastern University. He became her mentor, gave her a job and was, at different times, a supportive friend and an abusive boss, she said.

She said Rothstein helped to find an appropriate rehab treatment for her when was abusing drugs and alcohol.

"From that day forward, I was forever grateful [to him] for helping me with that," said Kitterman, who has been sober since 2007

Defense lawyer Valentin Rodriguez Jr. said Kitterman was "in some respects a victim" of Rothstein and that she had already lost her reputation, her job and her ability to work as a lawyer in the future.

"She is no victim," Assistant U.S. Attorney LaVecchio replied. "She willfully participated in a fraud and she willfully lied about it. That doesn't make her a victim."

Kitterman was found guilty of three counts of wire fraud.

Jurors found she impersonated Quintela to persuade some of Rothstein's investors to continue giving him money after he failed to make some payments to them and they became suspicious.

The result of that phone call — according to prosecutors Lawrence LaVecchio and Paul Schwartz — was that Rothstein's fraud thrived for another six months when the investors decided not to file a civil lawsuit that would have exposed his Ponzi scheme in April 2009.

The Ponzi scheme imploded in late October 2009 but in those additional six months, other investors poured another $553 million into the fraud, the judge and prosecutors said.

The judge said he very conservatively estimated the losses that Kitterman could have foreseen at $120,000 — if she believed she was lying to people who were refusing to make payments they owed as part of civil suit settlements. He calculated her recommended sentencing guidelines at between three and four years in prison but gave her a harsher punishment that took into account her perjury and abuse of trust, he said.

Rothstein is serving 50 years in prison after admitting he masterminded the Ponzi scheme.

In an unusual and much-criticized move, Kitterman's defense called him to testify.

Rothstein told jurors he and Kitterman had a sexual relationship, that she was friendly with mobsters, that she was involved in altering records to protect herself from a possible Bar complaint and that she made political donations that were later illegally reimbursed by him.

Kitterman has reached an agreement — subject to consideration by the Florida Supreme Court — to resign from the Florida Bar with the possibility she could apply for reinstatement after five years, her lawyer Rodriguez told the judge.

Prosecutors had recommended she go to prison for more than five years. They said that — like Kitterman — none of the people sentenced so far in the Rothstein fraud knew that he was running a Ponzi scheme but all knew they were committing crimes.

About 30 of Kitterman's family and friends attended the sentencing.

Several supporters, including her mother and a 19-year-old girl that Kitterman and her mom have informally adopted, begged the judge to go easy on her and allow her to go home.

The teen told the judge she met Kitterman in 2010 at a program for disadvantaged children where Kitterman volunteered for years. She called Kitterman "mom" and said she had provided "a lost girl" with unconditional love and a place to live.

Rodriguez said Kitterman plans to appeal the verdict. The judge recommended she be allowed to participate in a substance abuse treatment program in prison that could reduce her sentence by as much as a year.